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Kentucky may be the nation’s third-leading coal producer, but over the years it has increasingly turned to other states to supply coal for its power plants.
Kentucky power plants use only a fraction of the coal they once did from the state’s struggling eastern coalfield, and according to federal data compiled by the state Energy and Environment Cabinet, coal mined in other states has almost entirely displaced it.
Kentucky relies on coal for more than 90 percent of its electric power needs, and is burning more than it did in 1983. Though more than half the state’s mining jobs have disappeared since 2009, the amount of coal the state consumes has barely budged.
The data show that over the long term, the percentage of eastern Kentucky coal that fires the state’s power plants has plunged from 32 percent in 1983 to 4 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, coal produced in western Kentucky still supplied an estimated 57 percent of what the state consumed last year.
The balance of Kentucky’s coal needs last year, about 39 percent, was met by other states, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Colorado and Wyoming.
WE LIKE THE IDEA OF KENTUCKY COAL BEING USED TO CREATE KENTUCKY ELECTRICITY. WE ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT THE UTILITIES HAVE TO DO WHAT’S BEST FOR THEM BASED ON COST AND AVAILABLE RESOURCES.
Bill Bissett, president of the Kentucky Coal Association